I get a lot of questions about why I would consider converting to Islam, living in a Muslim country, and raising a Muslim family. Today, I am assessing the condition of my family, as it spreads all over the east coast of the United States, and is also concentrated in Athens, Greece. First, when I consider my mother, who left her family in Athens at the all too young age of 18 for marriage and dreams of a better future in the US, I am saddened at the physical distance preventing her from seeing her family. This was a beginning of the breaking down of the family as community, I believe.
She was in the US, married, and raising children without the support of family and relatives nearby or in the same home. Without a tightly knit family, which is bound together emotionally, spiritually, and by physical proximity, children can struggle to feel rooted, to develop a clear sense of identity, and to mature with an affective moral compass. Intimate details of how my American family has dispersed about east coast are not necessary--to put it simply, my mother has five children, and now lives alone, feeling just like many Western mothers who are abandoned and forgotten by their children. Of course, even though I call her every day, my mother spent an hour of our Skype call today insisting that I should live in her house until I get married.
My family is plagued by financial irresponsibility, inconvenient physical distance that prevents us from seeing, hugging and holding each other, health problems, debt, failed relationships, guilt-trips, raised voices, bankruptcy, overeating, loneliness, and resentment. I want my children to be raised in a supportive community that practices religion reverently. I want faith, ethics and a sense of morality to be instilled in my children at home and at school. I want my children to be raised in an appropriate environment, where I will not worry about what billboards they will pass on the highway, what images they will see on magazine covers at the store, or what programs or commercials they could happen upon on television. I want to escape from the curses that I have described above, by trying to return to family-oriented environment and faith.
She was in the US, married, and raising children without the support of family and relatives nearby or in the same home. Without a tightly knit family, which is bound together emotionally, spiritually, and by physical proximity, children can struggle to feel rooted, to develop a clear sense of identity, and to mature with an affective moral compass. Intimate details of how my American family has dispersed about east coast are not necessary--to put it simply, my mother has five children, and now lives alone, feeling just like many Western mothers who are abandoned and forgotten by their children. Of course, even though I call her every day, my mother spent an hour of our Skype call today insisting that I should live in her house until I get married.
My family is plagued by financial irresponsibility, inconvenient physical distance that prevents us from seeing, hugging and holding each other, health problems, debt, failed relationships, guilt-trips, raised voices, bankruptcy, overeating, loneliness, and resentment. I want my children to be raised in a supportive community that practices religion reverently. I want faith, ethics and a sense of morality to be instilled in my children at home and at school. I want my children to be raised in an appropriate environment, where I will not worry about what billboards they will pass on the highway, what images they will see on magazine covers at the store, or what programs or commercials they could happen upon on television. I want to escape from the curses that I have described above, by trying to return to family-oriented environment and faith.
